Julia Gets a Life
“Just like that, as bold as you like. It said to look under pregnancy, which I did, and there were about a zillion to choose from. Abortion, it seems, is now part of the social landscape, like the National Lottery and supermarket loyalty cards.
I rang the one with the small display ad, as per Richard’s usually failsafe system (lineage: cheapskates, big display: sharks, and never call AAAA1111 plumbing/ taxi/ emergency gas repair ltd - very big sharks with £150 call out charges). I to...ld the lady (who sounded very old - Marie Stopes maybe?) that I was enquiring for a friend.
‘Yes, dear,’ she said in that very predictable knowing way. I was about to add ‘really, I actually am’ but decided that would make her even more likely to think it was me with the unplanned pregnancy. So I asked her to send me a pamphlet instead.
‘But don’t you want to make an appointment?’ she asked.
‘But it’s not...not yet, thank you.’ And then I felt really guilty for even being embarrassed to have someone who didn’t even know me thinking that I was considering having an abortion, as if having an abortion was a nasty wicked thing to do (even if from some perspectives, and to some people, it patently is, but then they don’t know the circumstances, do they?) And who was I, the lady at the abortion clinic or anyone else to judge what a woman did in those circumstances?MoreLess
I rang the one with the small display ad, as per Richard’s usually failsafe system (lineage: cheapskates, big display: sharks, and never call AAAA1111 plumbing/ taxi/ emergency gas repair ltd - very big sharks with £150 call out charges). I to...ld the lady (who sounded very old - Marie Stopes maybe?) that I was enquiring for a friend.
‘Yes, dear,’ she said in that very predictable knowing way. I was about to add ‘really, I actually am’ but decided that would make her even more likely to think it was me with the unplanned pregnancy. So I asked her to send me a pamphlet instead.
‘But don’t you want to make an appointment?’ she asked.
‘But it’s not...not yet, thank you.’ And then I felt really guilty for even being embarrassed to have someone who didn’t even know me thinking that I was considering having an abortion, as if having an abortion was a nasty wicked thing to do (even if from some perspectives, and to some people, it patently is, but then they don’t know the circumstances, do they?) And who was I, the lady at the abortion clinic or anyone else to judge what a woman did in those circumstances?MoreLess
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